Last Thursday, I slept better than I had slept for about a month. Since, in fact, the disastrous mini budget.

The resignation of Liz Truss as leader of the Conservative Party drew to a close what was perhaps the most dismal period of our recent history. It wasn’t just that it was a bad budget: it was that she turned her back on the trusted institutions that stop policy makers doing stupid things. The Treasury, the Bank of England, the Office of Budgetary Responsibility – all these are there to counsel ministers and help them do the right thing. And if the Conservative Party is nothing else, it is an organisation that values the wisdom of those who know what they are talking about. As a party, when we knew we had got things wrong, we dealt with it quickly.

We enter a new era. Rishi Sunak becomes the first UK prime minister of Indian ancestry. But it is his skill in economics and financial markets that is the reason I supported his campaign. During Covid lockdowns. He designed a system to support the economy. His instincts are based in the history of the party – low tax, sound economy, strong public services. But he absolutely gets the need to steady markets. After all, whilst the mini budget cannot be blamed for every percentage point increase in mortgage rates, there is no doubt that some of the increase is down to uncertainty in financial markets. With a steady hand on the tiller, we should see markets, and mortgages, stabilise.

But what of the two other candidates?

Both Boris Johnson and Penny Mordaunt gave up their opportunities to be prime minister in the interests of our country. They could both have pushed for a party-wide election, but both chose to stand aside and put stability before personal gain. Boris, I am sure, will be remembered for his delivery of Brexit, his handling of Covid – especially the vaccine programme – and his leadership over Ukraine. Penny, I am sure, will continue in government where she is a talented minister.

For now, we need to stabilise the government, the economy and the markets. To do otherwise would be to needlessly incur uncertainty on millions of households. Opposition parties call for a general election, and I am not unsympathetic to the argument. But is now the right time for yet more political naval gazing? I suspect not.